Earlier this year, I helped build a mini-mart. In a recent visit, the owner wondered whether a particular cooler was 'paying its' way.' That is, was he even making enough from it to cover the electric bill?
Well, I had purchased (from this site) the "Kill-A-Watt" meter. This $30 (or so) gizmo allows you to measure power consumption over time. Naturally, the longer the test period, the better the numbers are.
Operation could not be easier; plug in the Kill-A-Watt, then plug the appliance into the Kill-A-Watt.
After I had measured the power used (I tested for an hour) in the cooler he was curious about, I decided to perform similar measurements on other coolers, just for comparison.
As luck would have it, the ice cream freezer was using 15 times the power of the first (soda) cooler. Even allowing for differences in refrigeration needs, that seemed wrong.
A closer check of the freezer revealed it was leaking considerable current to ground. I suspect the compressor is going bad, and we made arrangements with the vendor to fix the problem.
It was probably the first time this vendor has had the problem discovered before losing $1000 worth of merchandise.
No ... for the business part ....
It occurs to me that I might be able to offer this (appliance metering) as part of a general electrical survey for new customers. While I expect such a service would be a "loss leader," it might be a good way to develop future business. It would also give you some real numbers to use for proposing lighting upgrades, etc.
What do you think?
